As an independent thinker and voter in a world where both parties govern to please their bases, I am used to being disappointed. It was, therefore, a rare and satisfying time to find alignment with both political parties on support for Ukraine. Now to watch the Republican party conform to the administration’s abandonment of Ukraine and all that the Ukraine war signifies is deeply disturbing.
Articulating a position on Ukraine deserves an article, not a paragraph; for purposes of this article a paragraph will have to suffice.
I support Ukraine for three fundamental reasons
First, in 1994, the U.S. signed the Budapest Memorandum, in which Ukraine agreed to transfer its nuclear arsenal to Russia for promises that its territorial integrity, independence, and sovereignty would be respected. Russia violated the agreement when it occupied Crimea in 2014 and invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Second, Russia is a threat to our Western democratic institutions, covets territory beyond Ukraine, and will not cease its aggression voluntarily.
Third, as I argued in my recent article “Are We Watching the Wrong Hand?” without Ukraine, the U.S. and Europe are extremely vulnerable (short of the nuclear option) in light of Russia’s new drone capability.
I was once in the majority - it was fun while it lasted
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine created one of the infrequent moments when most Republicans, Democrats, and independents agreed on something important. It is fair to say that the outrage was universal and bipartisan. The majority of Democrats and this independent are still united. Republicans have abandoned ship.
In December 2022, Zelensky was given the rare privilege of addressing a joint meeting of Congress. He received a hero’s welcome. During his 25-minute address, he received 18 standing ovations. Most members of both parties were effusive in their praise and support.
Between March 2022 and April 2024, Congress passed five bills that funded Ukraine. Three were omnibus or stopgap bills that also funded the entire government, so a vote for them may have had little to do with Ukraine. The other two were uniquely Ukraine bills, and both drew significant Republican support.
The first, the May 2022 Additional Ukraine Supplemental (H.R. 7691), provided $40.1 billion and received 149 Republican votes in the House.
The second, the April 2024 Ukraine Security Supplemental (H.R. 8035), provided $60.8 billion and received 101 Republican votes in the House.
Republican leaders were on the record as well
Speaker Johnson’s own office posted a Wall Street Journal editorial on speaker.gov on April 19, 2024 that quotes him: “I think providing lethal aid to Ukraine right now is critically important. I really do. I really do believe the intel and the briefings that we’ve gotten. I believe Xi [Jinping] and Vladimir Putin and Iran really are an axis of evil. I think they’re in coordination on this. I think that Vladimir Putin would continue to march through Europe if he were allowed.”
After visiting Kyiv in 2022, then-Republican leader Mitch McConnell said “The United States of America has Ukraine’s back and will stand with our friends until they win.” In the same remarks on May 17, 2022, he said “It serves our own national security and strategic interests for international borders to continue to mean something.”
In 2022, as Republican whip, John Thune said “The only thing Putin responds to is strength” and “It’s essential that we continue that support for as long as the Ukrainian people need it.”
In May 2025, as Senate majority leader, he said: “It’s time for him (Putin) to come to the table in good faith and make a serious proposal for an immediate ceasefire that can lead to a just and lasting peace in Ukraine. I hope he realizes it’s time to do so. If not, the Senate stands ready to act.”
Trump and ephemeral Republican convictions
Much has been written about the surrender of the Republican Party to Donald Trump. Speaker Johnson’s willingness to cede the responsibilities of Congress to the executive branch is a simple matter of fact. The videos of Republican leaders, including the Vice President, denigrating candidate Trump in 2016 and then bending the knee will forever display their apostasy.
Hypocrisy among politicians, however, is not new, and the balance of power between the three branches of government has always been subject to fluctuation. If the Democrats retake the House as polls suggest, we’ll likely see a reset of the authority of Congress, at least for now.
While we may never understand the origin or motivation of Trump’s affinity for Putin and antipathy for our Western allies in general and Zelensky in particular, the Republican Party’s abandonment of Ukraine is far harder to comprehend. Of the 101 House Republicans who voted for aid in 2024, 82 were still there in June 2026, and 62 of them voted against the Democratic-led Ukraine Support Act.
Do you have any convictions worth fighting for?
We are used to politicians reversing prior positions on relatively banal subjects in order to stay relevant, win elections, avoid primary fights, or obtain cabinet positions. So, it has been painful but not shocking to watch Republicans abandon their traditional positions on budget deficits, tariffs, the independence of the Federal Reserve, or public ownership of private companies.
It is quite another thing to betray a country, the defense of democracy, our Western allies, and to side with a brutal dictator, wanted for war crimes, who has invaded a sovereign country. Yet that is what most Republicans in Congress have enabled.
The Democratic effort
In the minority, Democrats have found few Republican allies. Rep. Gregory Meeks’s Ukraine Support Act (H.R. 2913) would provide $1.3 billion in direct military aid, $8 billion in military sales, and new sanctions on Russia. Republican leaders kept it off the floor. Meeks led a discharge petition that reached the 218 signatures needed on May 13, 2026. With the help of 18 Republicans, the House passed it 226-195 on June 4, 2026. The Republican-led Senate has not taken it up.
Trump’s flip-flop on the Graham sanctions and the muted Republican response
In September, Congress passed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, 86 to 11 in the Senate and 262 to 159 in the House, and Trump signed it on September 18. The law requires sanctions on Putin, his government, Russia’s banks, and its shadow fleet of oil tankers, along with tariffs of up to 100 percent on the largest buyers of Russian oil and gas.
It isn’t the aid package or defensive missiles that Ukraine really needs, but at least Republicans were in support.
Four weeks later, however, on October 16, Trump used the law’s national-interest waiver to suspend the new sanctions before they took effect. A few Republican lawmakers objected, but the response has been muted, and reversing the waiver would take a new law that Trump would have to sign.
Unfortunately, this weak response offers little reason to expect a Republican conversion.
The midterm debate doesn’t include Ukraine
Ukraine has fallen off the radar during the campaign. It rarely comes up during campaign events or candidate debates. My short survey of candidate websites in the most competitive races found the same: four of 18 Democrats and one of 15 Republicans state support for Ukraine. Trump’s unpopularity, ICE abuses, the cost of living, tariffs, and the war in Iran have taken center stage.
Meanwhile, missiles rain down nightly on Ukrainian cities, hospitals, energy infrastructure, and bridges. What the average Ukrainian would give to have our problems.
Our ask of the Democrats
Since the midterm debate has been more or less silent on Ukraine, we are left to wonder what Democrats will do if they take the House. We are also left to wonder if Republicans in the minority will finally show some independence from Trump as he enters lame-duck status and remains deeply unpopular.
Unless Republicans change course, the options are limited if Trump remains committed to a Ukraine failure. Majorities in both chambers could pass Ukraine aid, though the Senate would still need 60 votes to end a filibuster, and neither majority would be large enough to override a veto.
Nonetheless, there are a few things we can ask for.
First, they should include Ukraine aid in the first funding bill and first defense authorization bill.
Second, they should hold hearings and demand accountability for the recent slowdown in Starlink and Starshield speed, as well as the delays in approving European deliveries of Patriot missiles to Ukraine.
Third, they should force the War Department to release the already appropriated $400 million aid package to Ukraine.
And fourth, they should repass the Lindsey Graham Sanctions bill without the national interest waiver by the President.
The chilling message of President Zelensky
Responding to the Trump waiver and the Russian diesel deal, President Zelensky made this chilling statement on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on October 18:
“If the United States will support Putin, it’s unbelievable. It’s a tragedy. It’s a historic mistake. I think that we have to be pragmatic. If the United States will take officially the side of Russia, of course, if these two countries will be together, we will not prevail. And we will not be able to stand.”
This reality should put fear into any American who values our freedom and Western democracy.
And as I said above, even if you don’t think Ukraine’s sovereignty is worth protecting for the sake of border integrity and democratic rule, consider the consequences of Ukraine’s drone capability falling into Russian hands. If Russia gains this capability, and is free of its quagmire in Ukraine, if you think Putin will stop there, you need to think again.